Courtney Kerwin, Mike Berinato, Donna Patton and Carla Essen will join the Escalent health team and support practice leader Ryan Doornbos.

Patton and Essen will serve as vice-presidents, with Patton leading the life sciences insights and consulting team along with the life sciences project management team and Essen taking charge of the life sciences moderators and qualitative team.

Before joining Escalent, Patton was insights director at Luminas and previously worked at MetrixLab.

Essen was vice-president, qualitative research at MarketVision Research before taking up her Escalent role.

Kerwin and Berinato will serve as vice-presidents and senior client managers, working with life sciences clients on strategic challenges and offering consultative advice.

Before joining Escalent, Kerwin was an insight and strategy consultant and has spent 15 years in the market research and consulting industry, including as senior director, strategy and innovation, at Egg Strategy until 2021.

Berinato has more than 20 years working in data, research and consulting, with recent roles including a previous spell at Escalent and director, client development, at Brandtrust.

Doornbos said: “Each of these four leaders has a unique background in the life sciences industry, enabling us to provide our clients with a robust understanding of the most important challenges they face.

“These important investments in our team indicate the significant opportunity we see for Escalent in life sciences over the coming years.”